‘Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel,’ writes Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:16.
As we move from 2021 to 2022, and with so many things potentially crowding our minds – the pandemic, rising gas and electricity prices, the refugee crisis, climate change, moral relativism, transgender issues, cancel culture, or whatever it might be – it is good to return simply and firmly once again to… the gospel.
‘The gospel,’ says Tim Keller, ‘is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.’
And at the heart of the gospel is the cross, and clarity about it. John Stott wrote: ‘Either we preach that human beings are rebels against God, under His just judgment and (if left to themselves) lost, and that Christ crucified, who bore their sin and curse, is the only available Saviour. Or we emphasise human potential and human ability, with Christ brought in only to boost them, and with no necessity for the cross except to exhibit God’s love and so inspire us to greater endeavour. The former is the way to be faithful, the latter the way to be popular. It is not possible to be faithful and popular simultaneously.’
At the heart of the cross is substitution. As Mark Dever and Michael Lawrence say: ‘You and I need deliverance from bondage to sin and from the fatal judgment of God, and that deliverance will come only through the blood of the firstborn lamb without blemish. Just as the Passover lamb was a substitute for sinners, so too is the Lamb of God.’
This is where we stand. And this is what we must proclaim ‘in season and out of season’ – including now.
Leadership for now
Where can evangelicals look to for leadership at this time?
The National Director of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC), John Stevens, is to be warmly applauded for the lead he has given in a recent letter to The Times in relation to the government’s proposed restriction of ‘conversion therapy’.
Stevens – who is also, it should be pointed out, an associate editor of this newspaper, but has no knowledge of this editorial – was clear and gracious in what he wrote, highlighting the potential dangers involved with legislating in this area.
And the organisers of an open letter to the government on the same topic – already signed (at the time of writing this) by hundreds of pastors, ministers and pastoral workers from many denominations – are also to praised. They include (among others) UCCF’s Raymond Brown, Church Society’s Ros Clarke, FIEC church pastor Dave Gobbett, Affinity’s Graham Nicholls, and the Church of England Evangelical Council’s Santhosh Thomas. Space forbids a full list, but thank you to all of them.
This newspaper warmly encourages others in leadership – notably evangelical bishops, and the new senior leaders of the Church of England Evangelical Council – to be similarly bold and forthright in giving a lead. It encourages our constituency, contends for truth, and surely indeed they are here ‘for such a time as this’.